Tuesday, June 7, 2016

June 2016 : Federal Reserve Chair : Janet Yellen

Broad risk markets are back in business, buoyed by a renewed spurt in oil to 10-month highs and reassurances by Fed Chair Janet Yellen, who though acknowledging Friday’s ‘disappointing’ jobs report, said economic positives still outweigh negatives.

Yellen proved vague on the exact timing of the Fed’s tightening path, merely saying that further gradual rate hikes remained appropriate but dropped the phrase ‘in coming months’.

Nevertheless, iron ore climbed 2.1% with commodities as a whole via the CRB index impressively rallying into a bull market by gaining 20% from February’s lows and US Treasury yields modestly pared Friday’s steep jobs induced falls. However moves were capped with Fed fund futures now pricing in an even lower 2% chance of a June hike and 21.6% chance for July.

Looking ahead, Asian stock futures are pointing to modest opening gains with a prop from USD/JPY’s recovery of the 107 handle.